Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A Comment on Booze-Blogging

Stacy McCain is booze-blogging this morning. Well, not really, but he's taken on the subject of booze snobs and touches on how the internet has affected the booze business.

I'm with Stacy in that I usually avoid wine and whiskey. There are occasions where I deviate from that rule, but not many. But talk to me about beer and I can go the distance with you unless you want to get all into the intricacies of microbreweries and then I'll call you a snob. Like Stacy, I abhor beer snobs, and snobbery in general.

For a moment there I thought Stacy might be calling me a snob when he said:

Beer snobs get on my nerves. It pains me to see these poseurs pestering a bartender in quest of some obscure imported premium ale -- dark as sin, with the flavor and texture of a peat bog -- just so their friends won't see them drinking a Bud.

To me, beer snobs are those microbrewery idgits who know where every microbrewery in the country is, what their last rank was at the latest beer festival.

Lord knows I've enjoyed my fair share of Bud Light, Miller Lite and other watery domestics, but once I discovered the richer tastes of the dark German beers, it was all over. Now I am one of those folks at the bar asking the bartender for what "dark as sin" beer they have so that I don't have to drink a tasteless domestic. Steve and I have Sam Adams Octoberfest hoarded in quantities to last me well into next spring.

Does that make me a snob? No, probably not. Stacy seems to be saying, and this is my rationalization anyway, that those are "poseurs" and only trying to impress. Not so in my case. I could care less who I impress, as anyone who takes a look at my fashion choices will tell you. No pretensions here. You probably won't find me on the internet trying to find the latest fashionable beer, Veblenian theory or not.

So, while I adore Stacy McCain, we must sadly part ways when we belly up to the bar because while he says "a beer is a beer is a beer," I have to differ. No more watery domestics for me unless I have no other choice. As a Corona man, I think Stacy might possibly agree (even though I think Corona tastes like equine urea). I guess I am a snob.

Since pregnant mare's urine is the source of hormone replacement pills, many women have had at least a whiff of it.

And... frankly, I have tasted beer that was at least as bad.

Which is why I prefer wine and whisky! :-)

However, I'm the fortunate mother-in-law of three fine young men from wildly different backgrounds who have bonded over beer.

On the rare occasions I manage to get all my offspring and their significant others in one geographic locale, my contribution to their health and welfare is buying the booze and I have a great time deciding which beers and wines to buy.

I also furnish the milk and OJ for the babies :-)

Pardon my going on like this, but this is the first Thanksgiving I'm not spending with at least some of them and I'm nostalgic.

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I am a Conservative writer and high school English teacher in Shreveport and also work as a free-lance proofreader. My biography of Cammie Henry will be published in 2018. I've been published at The American Thinker, The Shreveport Times, The Bossier Press Tribune and had photographs published in Bayou Bucks magazine, The Forum, and other local publications. I like dogs better than most people.